Workflow is one of those topics that varies wildly from photographer to photographer. What works for one, doesn’t work for another. What seems perfectly simple to me, may be extremely complicated for you. Regardless, I figured out what worked for me by reading about what others do and since several people have asked, I thought it was time to share mine.

Most importantly, before I begin any discussion about workflow, it is important that you know my feelings about making images. For me, an image is made in the camera, not on the computer. There are lots of things that can be done with the computer these days, and I will do many of these things myself as needed, but there is no substitute for making the image as good as it can be in camera. This means exposure, white balance, composition, and other factors that can be controlled at the time you press the button should be. You might even say a good workflow begins before you even press the button. Also, I shoot RAW+jpg for reasons that will be clear in a moment.

After the shoot is done (or sometimes several times during the shoot if I am in studio), I transfer images from the camera’s memory card to my computer. The safest way to do this is with a copy, not a cut and paste (or move). The destination directory on my computer is a named YY MM DD for the year, month, and day, followed by a description. This will be a name for a portrait session or event. Otherwise, it is some descriptor. A recent shoot, for example, went in the 09 05 24 Road Trip directory. These directories are later backed up to an external drive so if my hard drive crashes in my computer, I have them safe.

Once the images are copied from the card and verified on the computer, remaining images on the card are deleted. I only rarely “format” the card in camera out of habit, and when I do, it is *always* while sitting at my desk. It is *never* while I am on a shoot. The absolute worst thing that can happen to you on an important shoot is to format a card that you think is empty and/or images have already been copied… and then find out you were wrong. Make sure you do all your card formatting at your desk away from the stress of a shoot.

The next step for me is a “first pass” edit. I will go through all of the images from the shoot using Canon DPP (the software that came with the camera for those non-Canon readers). During this step, I tag everything I want to look at a second time and I delete the obvious losers – blinks, out of focus, and other goofs.

This next step is the only software recommendation I am going to make in this post. I have no affiliation with them and no discount codes to offer. Pro Select is, by far, my best software purchase in 2008. It has saved me immeasurable amounts of time during the editing (narrowing/choosing) process… and I only use some of its features. It doesn’t read RAW files (this is why I shoot RAW+jpg), but it does link them so if you move one with Pro Select, you move them both. Check them out: http://www.timeexposure.com/portraitstudiosoftware.php

Using Pro Select, I can quickly compare images side by side (even multiples of three or more at a time). This allows me to breeze through the selection process and settle on the best images from a shoot. The ones that don’t make this cut are moved (via Pro Select) to a sub-directory of the session called “outtakes.”

The final step of my shoot workflow (the editing process is another subject) is to use Canon DPP to do the conversion of RAW files to working jpg files. There are a lot of software packages out there that do this, but I have settled on plain, simple DPP as the best choice *for me* at this time. I have nothing against those other products. I just simply do not use them. If the job was done correctly in camera, there are minimal adjustments to be made at this step. Once those adjustments are made, RAW processing is done as a batch.

The destination directory for these files is formatted differently than the RAW files. I use the descriptor first this time, followed by the date in mm-dd-yyyy format. This way, I can quickly find any shoot by name or date – and once I find one (RAW or finished files), I can find the other.

Once post processing work is done on the session, the finished files are doubly backed up to mirrored hard drives. These drives are eventually stored in two different locations, just to satisfy extra paranoia.

This post is a lot longer than I thought it would be, so I won’t go into other important topics such as white balance, exposure control, and the image editing process. There is probably enough there to write a book – and my way is only one way of doing it. Experiment with new processes and figure out what works for you. This workflow is the result of several years of shooting digital and is constantly being refined.

Remember, even the experts were beginners once. Every one of them has had their moment of thinking, “I am never going to get this.” You never stop learning new ways and new ideas.

In a discussion on TexasPhotoForum.com, another user asked about our first picture post and a recent one .. as an inspiration to those out there that think they will never “get it” and to remind us that everyone started somewhere.

This first one is really bad .. poor Paul. It was shot in December 2004, right after I’d gotten my first light set and had no real idea how to set it up (nevermind how to shoot actors). The second is Ashley. While not an actor, it was shot with my actor setup…

So if you are struggling with portraits and or lighting.. remember, nobody was great on day one. And I’m still far from perfect, myself.